Letters to A Young Teacher

In the form of a series of affectionate letters to a first grade teacher at an inner-city school, educator Kozol vividly describes his repeated visits to her classroom while, under her irreverent questioning, he also reveals his own personal stories of the years that he has spent in public schools. This book reignites a number of the controversial issues Kozol has powerfully addressed in recent years: the mania of high-stakes testing that turns many classrooms into test-prep factories where spontaneity and critical intelligence are no longer valued, the invasion of our public schools by predatory private corporations, and the inequalities of urban schools that are once again almost as segregated as they were a century ago. But most of all, these letters are rich with the happiness of teaching, the curiosity and jubilant excitement children bring into the classroom when they are in the hands of an adoring and hard-working teacher.